


For Our Future

by Duchesse



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Comfort, Drowning, F/M, Fluff, Hurt, M/M, Near Death, Near Death Experiences, Reader-Insert, Reader-Interactive, Romance, basically asra saves mc and there is some reflection, gender-neutral
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 12:45:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16810894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duchesse/pseuds/Duchesse
Summary: After Asra saves you from an intimate brush with death, things are put into perspective with his willingness to follow you anywhere you go.[Asra/Reader].





	For Our Future

There hadn’t been enough time to react as the ice cracked underfoot and caved from your weight. You had been given a moment of a clarity before your heart leapt against your ribs, the ferocity left you winded, smothering your surprise in your throat. Soundless as you were swallowed by the murky depths below, you thought your eye caught the vibrancy of violet and magenta billowing against the glacial winds in the pristine white.

The water ensnared you like a great beast, weighing you further from the surface and sunlight filtering through bobbing slates of ice overhead. The great beast held you tighter with frozen arms as though in an unrelenting embrace, while a chill so enormous overrode your reason and stiffened your limbs.

You clawed towards the sun peering less through the weakened ice, heart ramming hard against your chest, hurting just like the water which you were submerged.

Fear encapsulated you as you were now in the home of the unknown, though you could fixate your eyes on nothing else but the thinning streaks of light from the sun, your only hope of escape. There was nothing among the dark waters that brought you comfort; not a fish nor monster, aquatic vegetation or conspicuous particles floating before your flitting gaze.

Most terrifyingly, you were alone among a seemingly endless void, lost to the violent thrum of your own heart in your ears and the frenetic disquiet in your mind telling you to swim, swim, swim; telling you that you were going to die.

And so, your thoughts betrayed you, ridiculed you until they faded to nothing like what surrounded you. The sun was so faint now, you wondered if you were really seeing it. You stopped moving in the water, weary of the struggle and finding the embrace from the depths all the more tantalizing.

It hurt to breathe, for your lungs and throat seared as though having swallowed molten lava. And yet, it felt of little consequence to you now. What mattered was the utter bliss that took hold of you, those worries that had been so relevant just moments ago were lost to a peace so profound.

You knew this was the end.

Perhaps it had been your final wish to hear his voice since it called to you so distantly. His words didn’t have any significance, it was his dulcet tones and pitch that allowed you identify him. 

Even as the glaciers of ice fractured through as though severed in half, you found yourself drifting to the recesses of your mind, of what remained of your consciousness. The arms that surrounded your body surely belonged to those of Death.

A final kindness, you presumed.

When you finally felt warmth, you thought to yourself that it was also a part of Death’s last courtesy to you. It encompassed you, holding you so tightly that it made your body ache; a fear of letting go. There you felt the tickle of hair skim your cheek, delicate notes of spice wafting under your nose, and the wail of the kettle in the next room.

This felt like home, and that’s what prompted you to open your eyes. A hazy film made everything indistinguishable; silhouettes with no true shape, colors that married together as things finally became more crisp.

Yes, you could see the low, beige ceiling with divots and cracks in the stone. The embers from the fireplace were out of your sight, yet they danced against the wall as a sprightly shadow. And the floorboards groaned beneath you, to the rhythm of the way your body rocked.

The tufts of white hair that touched your face quickly swayed away as you shifted your head, meeting Asra’s owlish gaze. You sucked in a harsh breath, to the detriment to your already damaged lunged, when he squeezed you hard as though trying to assure himself you were actually there.

“You’re-you’re awake! I was so worried, so sure that you wouldn’t!” he choked out, lifting you higher in his arms and buried his face against your neck. “I’m so, so sorry I didn’t find you sooner. I was so afraid I was too late. You were so cold when you pulled you out of the lake, your lips were purple.”

“That’s right, I fell through the ice.” It took every effort to coax those words from your lifts, immediately regretting it as your voice thinned into nothing.

Asra pulled back, the tears streaking his cheeks glistened against the fire. His relief and fear were so tangible, they quivered in his breath and shone brightly in his eyes turned red. You noticed his lips tremble, obviously attempting to stifle a sob yet muster a minuscule smile all at once.

The exhaustion crashed over you in vehement, unforgiving waves, perhaps as result of understanding just how close you had come to becoming another lover to Death. Instead, you were secured in the arms of the one you cherished more than anything.

Asra gave himself a moment before speaking again. “I honestly don’t know what I would have done if you.. if I would have lost you like that. I may have followed you, honestly.”

“No,” you rasped out, swallowing cautiously despite the knives prickling your esophagus. “Never do that for me. Live, always.”

“You’re everything to me. I’ve built this life with you. If you’re not here with me, then there is no point.” The sincerity in his voice was absolutely heartbreaking, and you knew that if it had come to it, he would had made good on those words. It had been your shortcoming to never think to dissuade these behaviors of his.

At the end of the day, you were both mortal. You both would live and then eventually die. While the path to happiness came from bonds built, the love forged through hardship and commitment, it ultimately came from within. 

Asra’s happiness was you, nothing more and nothing less. It would ruin him one day.

You found the strength in your weakened limbs to reach towards his face, the motion to caress his cheeks whittled further at your energy. The muscles in his face twitched against your icy fingertips, though he didn’t hesitate to melt against your very touch, pushing harder on your hands as though reveling the sensation.

“Stay alive with me, Asra.” You whispered briskly, tracing your thumbs across the stellar shape of his cheekbones. “We’re going to take our final breaths together, holding hands, old and wrinkly. We’ll have a nice little house somewhere in a small town, have our families around us.”

The corners of his lips climbed higher, creases deepening in his brows while he stared down you with such lonely, wistful eyes. “You think so? I wouldn’t want anything else.”

You struggled to return the smile. “Me neither.”

Asra turned his face into your palm, lips pressing into the center before taking the back of your hand and kissing each fingertip. The sensation was welcome to you, as was the warmth of his breath fanning across your skin and the tenderness that burst forth from him endlessly.

You found rest then, unable to bear the waking world any longer. Asra placed yet another kiss on you, this one to the top of your head as he weight of another blanket draped across your shoulders. He held you to his chest to his heart and said nothing else.

You had been wrong. The peace you felt while on the cold cusp of death did not amount to this moment in his arms.


End file.
